The nature of development and design in the UAV industry is complex and expensive. MGI’s own cargo eVTOL development programme was made possible by OxLEP, with whom we secured two funding programmes; the OxLEP Go-Create fund as part of the European Regional Development Fund, and the Supported by the Government’s Getting Building Fund, secured by OxLEP Business.

OxLEP is a brilliant organisation that supports thousands of businesses and entrepreneurs through funding and amplification of their work.

These grants not only helped bring our eVTOL dreams to reality but has allowed us to showcase what our team can achieve, by attracting potential investors and interest from many individuals and businesses who want to collaborate in making cargo eVTOL Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) a reality. The funding has also provided a vital boost to the MGI team, allowing us to meet critical development milestones, from achieving the first flight, to doing a full transition from vertical to conventional flight.

We are working on developing the technologies to enable us to build a fleet of cargo eVTOL UAVs with different payload and range capacities. These technological solutions will unlock the ability for UAVs in various market opportunities. This will hopefully result in a significant increase in sustainable solutions, bringing the industries one step closer to net zero. We are targeting further important milestones in the next six months.

MGI Engineering CEO and Founder, Mike Gascoyne said: “Funding from OxLEP has been fundamental to the development of our cargo eVTOL programme. It enabled us to reach some vital milestones and allow us to launch our technology demonstrator earlier this year at the eVTOL Insights event in April. We are grateful to OxLEP for its support.”